Funding cut receives icy reception

The British film industry was rocked by a surprise announcement from Her Majesty’s Treasury last Friday that it is to close a tax scheme that had been expected to raise hundreds of millions of pounds of film funding. Up to 90 films are likely to be affected, but the situation is particularly grave for productions due to start shooting soon.

One such film is Bono, Bob, Brian and Me , a comedy about global warming starring Green Wing ’s Stephen Mangan, and Rhys Thomas from The Fast Show . The producer Andrew J. Curtis explains: “The time constraints are dictated not only by cast and crew but also by the fact that the location will melt if we don’t get there by April 5. It’s a mockumentary about global warming, so it’s ironic that we might not be able to shoot it because the ice is melting.”

The producers have given themselves ten days in which to raise the shortfall of £250,000, after which the production, which has been three years in development, will stop. “As a sweetener, we’re working to make it a more tax-efficient investment,” Curtis says. He describes the Treasury’s move as “unfriendly to business”.

You can see a promo for Bono, Bob, Brian and Me at www.shootingpictures.co.uk/bbbm/promo90.html WENDY IDE

Get your best of British tomatoes here

Hollywood studios, movie marketers and anyone representing Mr Bean’s Holiday, beware! The meta-critical website Rotten Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com ) — the moviegoer’s equivalent of truth serum — has been retooled and given a specific UK-based agenda.

As of today the site famed for its merciless “Tomato-meter” (a film’s reviews are collated and scored into positive “fresh” reviews versus negative “rotten” ones) will be launching its own British site (uk.rottentomatoes.com ). Here users can discover the critical truth about a local movie in an objective environment that’s free from the dubious poster quotes, celebrity appearances and blanket TV advertising that surrounds many studio releases (yes, Guy Ritchie’s Revolver , please stand up: we’re talking about you).

“It can be seen as a bad thing for the studios,” admits the site’s UK-based editor Joe Utichi, “because we’re not concerned only about how a movie performs over its opening weekend. Instead we adore film in its entirety.”

Utichi adds that, based on their research, 80 per cent of Rotten Tomatoes surfers use the site specifically to decide on what film they’re going to see that weekend.

“Which makes the Tomato-meter an incredibly powerful tool,” he says. “But it also shows us, in the 21st century, that film critics still have the real power.” KEVIN MAHER

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